Clarity of purpose should drive your decisions

Colleagues,

As with yesterday, my long-time friend Nat Ellis and I collaborated on this topic he suggested. Nat’s writing is in blue and mine in black. Nat specifically talks about the school context but this is true for all of us.

The final decision
Each day, an AP must make many decisions that impact more people than themselves. Some decisions might be easy, some might require extensive research and discussion.  At the end of the day, there should be one primary criterion that resonates in every decision: what is best for kids.  

If we keep our focus on what is best for kids, we can always know we are headed in the right direction.  If we try to focus our decisions on teachers, administrators, or parents, we might be compromising what is best for our school. 

We probably don’t talk about purpose enough. Why do I write this daily email? Why do you read it? Urgent leaders focus on action, but strategic leaders focus on progress. The two are different and one requires clarity of purpose.

Cheers!

Frederick